CORPSAFRICA
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Mission Statement
CorpsAfrica recruits, trains and sends college-educated Africans to live in remote villages in their own countries to facilitate small-scale, high-impact projects that are identified by local people, along the lines of the Peace Corps model.
About This Cause
CorpsAfrica addresses poverty and youth unemployment in Africa. Over 430 million people in Africa live in poverty and, at the same time, Africa currently has the youngest population in the world with 50% of the population under 34 years old. According to the World Bank, Africa's youth make up 60% of the unemployed population. Furthermore, Sub-Saharan Africa has seen the fastest growth in higher education in the last three decades – more than any other region in the world. With growing numbers of educated young Africans and rising unemployment rates across the continent, there is a tremendous of untapped potential alongside the need for opportunities that give young people the chance to help their fellow citizens alleviate poverty while also gaining critical problem-solving skills through service learning. CorpsAfrica seeks to harness this potential and empower young Africans to be part of the solution for their countries and for Africa. While there is a long history of NGOs and humanitarian aid in Africa, the people working to alleviate poverty in Africa often come from outside Africa. Even African NGO staffers have rarely lived in poverty themselves. This situation perpetuates the outside savior dynamic. Like the Peace Corps approach, CorpsAfrica Volunteers live in villages for an extended period of time. They learn local languages, eat what the local people eat, sleep where the local people sleep, and develop trust, friendship, and the understanding of poverty that only comes from living it. They learn about complex development issues by getting their hands dirty. The most powerful lesson is humility, that if you want to help someone, listen to them. CorpsAfrica is gender-neutral in recruitment of Volunteers, but all Volunteers learn that development efforts focused on women have powerful synergistic results. These experiences will make them committed and humble leaders with problem-solving and critical-thinking skills that employers will value. Young Africans, both men and women, want and deserve high-quality jobs and they also want and deserve to be useful members of society. CorpsAfrica provides both while creating a strong Pan-African network of young leaders who share a common experience and can benefit from this network personally and professionally for the rest of their lives.